THE incoming administration of President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong “Marcos Jr. intends to issue the physical or electronic form of the national identification (ID) cards of about 92 million of Filipinos by the end of the year, incoming Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said yesterday.
In an interview with CNN Philippines, Balisacan said the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that around 92 million Filipinos are eligible to receive the national IDs and the instruction of Marcos is to have it released before the end of the year.
Baliscan, also the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) chief, said the new administration is coordinating with the PSA about the list and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for the release of the IDs.
“Hopefully, we can get most of these IDs either in physical form or in electronic form already available before the end of the year and that’s the instruction of the President,” he said.
The PSA has already delivered more than 10 million Philippine Identification (PhilID) cards nationwide as of April 30.
Balisacan said the national ID is important in ensuring the speedy distribution of assistance to poor and vulnerable sectors amid the soaring prices of commodities.
He said it would also help ensure that the aid would really go to the persons who really need help.
“We are ramping up the implementation of our National ID system and also the digitalization in the government and with respect to the ID system, we believe that we can reduce substantially the leakage so that we can reach more people, more deserving people from the limited resources,” he said.
